Karen Sheridan and Conal Herron’s Slow Skies was quiet for 2015 since ‘Bodies’ and their Keepsake EP but thankfully, the pair have regrouped and released a new single as of Friday.

‘Winter Night’ is a drifting piano ballad, about “trying to capture a place in time or feeling you once had and wanting to hold on to it, not wanting to move on from it. It’s that feeling you have where you wish you could go back in time and just be in that moment or feeling again. It comes from a place of longing.”

It was recorded by Ber Quinn (Villagers), and featuring piano from Patrick O’Laoghaire (I Have a Tribe) who plays live with Karen sometimes.

Over three days and nights in Cork the Sounds From A Safe Harbour’s programme took hold in the venues of the city that saw the likes of Lisa Hannigan, Wild Beasts, The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Richard Reed Parry, Crash Ensemble and many more contemporary artists play shows in a new festival put together by Mary Hickson of the Cork Opera House and curated by Bryce Dessner.

It was a superb first year, with bonded warehouse food, cocktail bars, gigs and talks; exhibitions and screenings and an attendance that further suggested Cork was more than ready for this unique style of contemporary/classical yet alternative-leaning festival to dock in the city.

As part of the whole experience, I curated a free music trail around 5 pubs/venues in the city including Crane Lane, Bodega, The Oval, Poor Relation and BDSM which featured shows from My Brightest Diamond, I Am The Cosmos, Rusangano Family, Bantum, Shookrah, This Is The Kit, I Have A Tribe, Katharine Phillippa, Somerville, Quiet River Of Dust, Slow Skies, Loah, Conor Walsh, Deady, Adultrock, Talos and more.

If you missed out, here’s flavour of the weekend through the lens of Bríd O’Donovan. Here’s to the hope of the return of the festival next year. Thanks Mary, Bryce and Cork for having me too.

Curated by Bryce Dessner of The National, the festival will feature shows from The Gloaming, Wild Beasts,Julianna Barwick, My Brightest Diamond, Sam Amidon, a collaboration between Lisa Hannigan and Aaron Dessner, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Amiina, This Is How We Fly; Donal Dineen, Crash Ensemble, Eat My Noise and more.

As part of the festival, I’ve put together a free music trail taking place across three days and nights in Rising Sons’ venues Crane Lane, Bodega, Poor Relation, The Oval and BDSM starting on Culture Night on Friday 18th with Rusangano Family and happening in between the main gigs on Saturday afternoon and late night.

Sounds from a Safe Harbour is a new festival taking place around the city of Cork from September 17th to 20th. put together by Cork Opera House with a lineup curated by Bryce Dessner of The National.

Already set to feature the likes of The Gloaming, Julianna Barwick, My Brightest Diamond, Sam Amidon, a collaboration between Lisa Hannigan and Aaron Dessner, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Amiina and lots more as previously announced, today the festival have added Wild Beasts to their lineup. The band will headline Cork Opera House on Sunday, September 20th.

Sounds from a Safe Harbour music trail

On a personal note, I’m pleased to share the news that Nialler9 is curating a music trail around the city that weekend which will take place in various venues and pubs owned by Benny McCabe including the Rising Sons brewery, Bodega and more.

The confirmed lineup for the free music trail which will take place in the afternoons, evenings and late-night during the festival includes Slow Skies, I Am The Cosmos, Rusangano Family, Somerville, Bantum, Talos, Shookrah, Conor Walsh and Vinyl Love with more to be confirmed. Artists from the existing lineup will also be playing these music trail shows.

Other confirmations

Soundings from a Safe Harbour – Lisa Hannigan and Dylan Haskins’ podcast turned live show will welcome Bryce, Aaron and Jessica Dessner in the unique setting of a Bonded Warehouse down on the Port of Cork. The show happens in three sections – the first is stories to inspire, then stories to alarm, and finally stories to humour. Each section is bridged by a song on those themes.

Cork salad king Rocketman will host a food area at the Bonded Warehouse which will include Cork food, food trails and special dining experiences.

The Glucksman will present a week long exhibition of the mesmerising seascapes of renowned Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. The exhibition will take place in one of the interior chambers of the historic observatory on the UCC Campus, evoking the connection between tide and moon, sea and stars.

A screening of Matthew Ritchie’s ‘Monstrance’, which is scored by Bryce Dessner and features Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond).

‘Sail to Sirius’ – Saturday 19 September. A vessel will leave Port of Cork with 40 souls, bound for Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh. On board, the seafarers will be treated to a live performance by Landless before alighting at Sirius for lunch on the venue’s veranda, overlooking Cork Harbour. This will be followed with a double billed performance by Rainwear and Sirius Arts Centre’s artist in residence Nad Spiro.

Cork’s own Alex Petcu-Colan will present a percussion programme in CIT School of Music’s Curtis Auditorium with a programme entitled WoodMetalWater with the Bangers and Crash Percussion group.

Craig Carry of Fractured Air is teaming up with Filter Cafe for an exhibition of work created in response to the festival programme.

Cork Concert Orchestra and the Lords of Strut will also play over the weekend.

Homebeat and KPB are presenting a new two-day small festival of music, film and food in the impressive natural Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre in Co. Kilkenny, just outside the city.

On Friday July 3rd, Happenings will screen the Goonies in the hollow while on the Saturday July 4th, there will be music from Jape, Elephant The Man Whom, Sails, Slow Skies and I Have A Tribe. An afterparty in the Set Theatre will feature a Jape DJ set and T/A/S/T/E DJs too.

The event is non-camping and buses will run from Kilkenny City to and back.

Tickets for Hollow Sounds go on sale this Friday 15 May at 10am and are available from Eventbrite.ie priced at €30 Early birds and €38.50 regular. Regular + Return bus from Kilkenny is €45. The film costs €5 or €10 with bus.

The Wonderlust stage is where you may spend a lot of the time during the day at Body & Soul on the summer solstice weekend as it’s a nice place to chill out and it has a lot of varied things on during the day and night.

For their new EP, entitled Keepsake, Slow Skies (Karen Sheridan & Conal Herron) have amped up the atmosphere between the notes and words, moving their sound into more dynamic and effective places.

A couple of weeks ago the ’80s feel of ‘Ice Field’ marked that change. It’s further reinforced by ‘Bodies’, track two on the EP, in which Karen sings of searching for bodies in the snow, adding a glacial cold front to the band’s usually lilting sound.

Slow Skies are in London supporting James Vincent McMorrow on October 5th at Shepherds Bush Empire next month. Keepsake is out on Faction on September 26 (IE), 29 (UK), 30 (US).

The Nialler9 TXFM show airs every Thursday night at 10pm for two hours. You can listen live on 105.2FM, online, the TXFM app or if you missed it, on the listen back function on the site, as per below. The show starts six minutes in, right after the news in each hour.

Some first plays for little xs for eyes, Laura Doggett, Slow Skies, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Dear Desert in this show.

Dublin-based Cork producer REID is back with a new EP and the release is being trailed by ‘Fractures’, a track with a head-spinning night-time European electronic feel with nods to Gold Panda and vocals by Slow Skies aka Karen Sheridan.

Ig you’re in Cork this Thursday, I’ll be DJing at Feel Good Lost’s Second birthday with live sets from Slow Magic, Giraffage, Slow Skies and a DJ set from Signal, Ian Ring of Young Wonder’s new garage/house project featuring live vocals from Senita Appiakorang. Live visuals all night by Feel Good Lost of course.

The best new music/artist picks of the last week. As published in today’s Day & Night Magazine. Follow Day & Night on Twitter and Facebook.

Fallulah

Forget Emmelie De Forest’s Eurovision win, Denmark has much more going for it in the pop stakes, like the Florence Welch-esque sound of this Copenhagen cool chick who just released her second album Escapism.(more…)

‘On The Shore’ is the beginning of the followup to Karen Sheridan and Conal Herron’s first EP as Slow Skies, Silouettes. The track, from the Close EP, is pretty effective in its moodiness, it’s been compared to Daughter and you can detect similar brooding atmospherics. Sheridan’s distinct timbre keeps things more earthed however.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Continuing the four part series this week, in no particular order, in which various artists, media and music fans I trust answer the question: “What are your five best new musical discoveries of the year?” Their answers were then rummaged through by me and I picked a cross-section list of 40 of the most interesting, diverse new artists from their choices.

Karen Sheridan made a small wave with Dublin trio Kasette in 2010 before her Slow Skies project with producer Conal Herron put out the debut Silhouettes EP out a few months ago and ‘Across The Sea’ featured on it. Slow Skies’ music is more atmospheric than her previous band though it still dabbles in chamber folk-pop though ‘Across The Sea’ has a guitar line not a million miles from the xx. The also atmospheric video for the track, premiering here tonight is by Brendan Canty of Feel Good Lost. Additional footage shot by Petr Stary and Conal Thomson.